Mowen

Yep, the team and the board wasn't ready it seems, it all came too fast for them. I agree. If they'd still been in the championship, like they should have been (and will be next year), he'd still be in a job. By the way, who was that poster who loved Derby and said they definitely wouldn't go down? Was it Morph?

10th. Down on my pre-season optimisim influenced prediction of 7th.

Victim of his own success.

Pissed off. Summer far less enjoyable. Those sayin 'couldn't give a rats arse' can't be English, or they're jumping on the ludicrous 'I didn't want us to qualify, that'll show us' bandwagon.

Absolutely agree with that last sentance Baggy.

Ditto. One bad game and a player is embaressing? We have some of the worst "supporters" in football. Sorry, yeah - Cacapa is brilliant, and deserves a place in the starting XI. Like fuck does he. After one bad game? He was fairly decent in all the other matches I saw him in. He was ok in most of the other games, bar a few wobboles. No better than Taylor or Rozenhal - in fact, on balance worse than both of them when they played together, so why shoudl he get a start*? * other than Allardyce and his Random Selection Madness. Do you mean worse than both of them when he played with them, or when they played together? Because Taylor was utter wank against Man City, and has been very poor imo in the last two games, albeit out of position. It was also notable that Roz looked far, far less assured when he had to start playing alongside Taylor rather than Faye at the SoS

Shame he plays on the other wing, and is not as good as our best player in his actual position. I still reckon what I said would hold if he was playing on the right. He'll also give us more options when Zog is playing crap, which he still does from time to time.

I'm looking forward to Duff coming back to full fitness. He may be shite, but he's more likely to give us the pace and dynamism that can stretch a game than Milner ever is.

What impresses you about David Moyes? I liek the way he goes about things. He's quietly built up a nice effective little squad, containing a number of players, despite what some of us might be stupid enough to think, that are better than our equivalents. I can't agree abotu the "big players" thing, because there is little evidence of Allardyce being any better at that, other than his abilities to get faded starts to perform relatively well. Over five years. Hughes has had a few years as well.

The first team there is pretty much exactly what I expect (and said a page or two back), but I think it would be foolish to drop Lescott, he was our best player by some way against Austria imo.

Theoretically, i think he could. But he won't. And no, we would get no compensation, why would we? There still seems to be this opinion that he can be great for us. I can only assume that the people saying this never really watched him play before, or accept that we are going to remain a mid table team. Insurance?

32 isn't exactly old for a keeper though, Dave. That's not really the point. He's a good keeper but he wouldn't be our long-term number 1; Given's not going anywhere soon. How long term are you looking? David James is 37 and playing as well as ever, no reason Jussi couldn't play at the top of his game for another 5 years. ... Given will still be here won't he. If we're signing a replacement, he needs to be 19/20, not 32. Given and Jussi will finish at the same time, so Jussi can't be the long-term replacement. Do you see what i mean? Sorry, i'm not explaining it very well. 19/20 is mental. That's about Krul's age and very few if any keepers are ready for regular premiership football at that age. Would be surprised if there are many of that age who are even a noticable improvement on him at the moment.

Riquelme is the sort of player who would need a side built around him imo, and with the versatility in our squad and lack of a player to dictate the game anyway this could be feasible. Trying to shoehorn him in somewhere is a disaster waiting to happen iyam.

To the first couple of posters, I would have thought there's no chance Lescott will be dropped, thought he was out best player against Austria. My guess would be back 4 the same, probably Robbo but hopefully Carson. I think he'll go for the same midfield 4 but with either Hargreaves of Barry in for the second striker and either Lampard of Gerrard playing just off Crouchinho.

Nothing but respect for the man. The world of football will be a worse place without him.

I wish people would engage their brains before posting shit thread titles.

It's not a trick question, was just interested in what you thought. I think they'd be much lower personally, but that's just my opinion. The point I was trying to make was that most people on here would think of League 1/2 standard as shit, so you can see why they'd declare women's football, which they won't rate as highly, as shit as well. Anyway, I think the thing holding back the women's game the most is the standard of keeping, it's fucking pathetic. I watched us beat the argies and couldn't believe some of the goals that went in, no joke I would have fancied my chances stopping them. Same goes for Charlton's keeper in the FA cup final against Arsenal last year, it was just embarassing. I think it's very hard to take the sport seriously when so many goals seem so soft.

The thing is though, FIFA won't allow women in mens squads. They can say it's because women are not as physically strong enough, but personally I think it's because the men in suits are scared in case a few are actually good enough to get in. They want to keep the delusion of grandeur. So do you think the best solution would be to allow women to play in the men's game then? Nope. It was a flippant comment in reply to a flippant comment. The point was, that some people keep saying "womens football is shit" yet even if women footballers wanted to prove themselves they would not be allowed to, so the myth will always remain. Where, in your opinion, would be the England women team's stable position in the Football League if they were to enter a team? Conference? Championship?

The thing is though, FIFA won't allow women in mens squads. They can say it's because women are not as physically strong enough, but personally I think it's because the men in suits are scared in case a few are actually good enough to get in. They want to keep the delusion of grandeur. So do you think the best solution would be to allow women to play in the men's game then?

Good post. Can't see what great advantage quotas wold give tbh. On another note, people always talk abot EU law when it comes to employing foreigners, but cricket teams are only allowed 1 overseas player, why is that allowed if a similar law in football wouldn't be? Actually many county cricket teams are full of South Africans... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolpak_ruling However the ECB incentivize teams who play more Englishmen. Yeah, I knew of the Kolpack ruling but didn't know the ins and outs. Maybe some sort of incentive system would help football? Not sure really, don't know anything about how it works in cricket but it might encourage teams to blood more youngsters.

Arteta is an excellent shout, I'd forgotten about him. Not been as good this year as last, but would be well worth a punt if money was being thrown around.

Good post. Can't see what great advantage quotas wold give tbh. On another note, people always talk abot EU law when it comes to employing foreigners, but cricket teams are only allowed 1 overseas player, why is that allowed if a similar law in football wouldn't be?

Butt and Geremi are no good at keeping postive posession (ie not a silly backwards pass or one to another player closely marked). I honestly wouldn't want either in the team next year. Hence my Gilberto thread blueyes.gif

Gilberto Silva Diego SWP Would do nicely for me. Two very good passers of the ball; one of whom supplies stability, the other goals and a quick and incisive outlet on the right.

Which is why we shouldn't be a) chopping and changing every week, either for the sake of it or to "cope" with whichever relegation battlers we're playing and b) inviting as much pressure onto the defence as possible away from home. For someone who supposedly knows how to get the best out of foreigners new to the league, Allardyce is making life very hard for four new imports. I totally agree, it was more of a comment than an excuse. I just hope Faye's injury isn't too serious as he is the one who has the quality and the experience in the PL. Agreed. Looks to be head and shoulders above the others at the moment.